Mid to Late 19th Century (Part 1)
Avant-Garde
"advance guard," was created in reaction to rigid academy training. The word comes from a military term for frontlinesmen.
Late 19th Century - Post Impressionism
*Artists worked to developed new visual languages for their messages. *French Post-Impressionists interpreted art as an expression of the imagination. *Symbolist artists found a similar retreat in the imagination. *Art Nouveau artists rejected rational order in favor of whimsical, writhing designs. *Critic Roger Fry used Post Impressionism as a description for a group of artists whose work was not unified, but shared the founding principles of Impressionism from which to adapt.
Post-Impressionism
*French Post-Impressionists interpreted art as an expression of the imagination. Only thing the artists have in common is the fact that they are NOT impressionists
Georges Seurat
*Georges Seurat (1859-1891) devoted his life to "correcting" shallow aspects of Impressionism. *He juxtaposed small strokes of pure, unblended color, creating pointilism and the effect of complementary color proposed by Chevreul. *Sunday Afternoon... was painted with 11 colors in three values.
Paul Cezanne
*Paul Cézanne (1839-1902) adopted a bright palette and loose brushwork to paint his landscapes in the 1870s. *These were highly structured and merged drawing and modeling into a single process. *His goal was to make Impressionism solid and durable, like the art of museums.
Gauguin
*Paul Gauguin created a style he called synthetism, which mixed the observation of a subject with the artist's feelings on that subject. *Gauguin was friends with Van Gogh, who greatly admired the sythetist. Gauguin spent some time in the south of France with Van Gogh before leaving to explore more "primitive" cultures in Tahiti. *Mahana no Atua, painted during his brief return from travels to the South Pacific, depicts an Edenic ideal closer to his imagination than the colonized cultural reality.
The Chicago School
*The city of Chicago required spaces that would accommodate more people and activities in urban areas. *It became the center of a new way of thinking about urban design and construction. *Louis Sullivan *An early example of the Chicago School style is the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri. *This building is taller than it is wide and is comprised of ten stories in three parts. * Such a tripartite structure suggests the lingering influence of Classical columns. *It illustrates the philosophy of "form follows function."
Symbolism
*This movement addressed the fears, desires, and impulses of the human mind. *Artists rejected the value of rationalism and utilized strange and ambiguous subject matter in stylized forms. *Paintings paralleled a similar movement among poets and writers. Emphasis on irrational fears of the human mind. Encouraged their artists to not ever leave their studios. Paint from imagination to open themselves up to the subconcious.
Victor Horta
*Victor Horta (1861-1947) designed Tassel House with graceful and attenuated curvilinear designs. *The use of ironwork, wall decoration, and floor mosaic formed an exquisite and unified whole.
Darwin- Origin of Species
A book explaining the idea of evolution and survival of the fittest
"Art for Art's Sake" - Aestheticism
Art for the sake of being pretty. study of color. when the purpose of art was questioned in the court of law. changed things for art since they no longer needed to have a "meaning"
Impressionism
Artists began to paint outdoors, en plein air in an effort to record fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. Impressionists sought to celebrate semirural outings afforded by the Paris train system, park outings mad possible because of the new work weekend and city parks, leisurly strolls down Paris' enlargened Haussman-Era boulevards, bar and theater outings, and other scenes from their modern upper-middle class lifestyles.
Modernism
Concerned with a critical examination of the contemporary time
Art Critics - Charles Baudelaire
First art critics. Responsible for the way people wrote and talked about art
Academic Art
Focus on historicism and technical proficiency.
Japonisme
French obsession with Japan after Japanese lacquers, fans, bronzes etc. were displayed at the Pris International Exposition of 1867
Barbizon School
Group of realist painters that explored the subject of the rural poor and peasants. Created by Millet
French Academic Architecture and Art
Historicists often combined allusions to other different historical periods in a single work. Orientalist paintings arose, combining Egyptian, Turkish, and Indian cultures through symbolism.
Art Nouveau
Means literally "new art". rejected values of modern industrial society. Rejecting the functional aesthetic in works such as the Eiffel Tower, artists and architects drew their inspiration from nature and delicate, graceful forms. New desire to return to hand made things and designed specifically for where they will be.
Sigmund Freud- Interpretation of Dreams
One of the first to explore the unconcious
(Cezanne) The Large Brothers (1885-1887)(oil on canvas)
Period/Style: Late Post Impressionism *The Large Bathers, left unfinished at the end of the artist's life, was the largest canvas he ever painted. *In some ways it returns to certain conventions of history painting; for example, an Arcadian landscape suggesting a mythological theme. Wanted his art to be stable and durable. Uses depth, repousoire (something that pushes back, evokes depth), uses the triangle to move the eye around, nude bathers contrasts with all the clothed subjects others have used. A blurry but focused aerial perspective.
(Eakins) The Gross Clinic (1875)(oil on canvas)
Period: 19th century, America Style: Realism •Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins specialized in frank portraits. •The Gross Clinic was controversial because surgery was deemed an unfit subject for art. avant-garde with his subjects. strong detail of anatomy. Studied in France as well as Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art and eventually teach there. Dr. Gross is operating on a man, removing his tumor. He is explaining what is going on. Inclusion of mother of patient recoiling in horror was a problem with viewers. Submitted for Philadelphia centennial exhibition.
(James Whistler) Nocturne in Black and Gold (the falling Rocket)(1875)(Oil on oak panel)
Period: 19th century, England Style: Impressionism •James Abbott McNeill Whistler began his career as a Realist painter is Paris but soon moved to Britain where he sought to satisfy an elitist taste for pure beauty. •His art was of pure aesthetic value. Compared his art to music. Blotches of color represent whole notes whil the dots represent stocatto. Maybe the first abstract painting Critic accused him of slinging paint in the publics face and Whistler sued him and won. "Art for Arts sake" Showing art that is the artists attempt to study color. Point of change for art.
(Monet) Impression Sunrise
Period: 19th century, France Style: Impressionism painting that gave impressionism its name. a critic used the term trying to be dismissive but the artists liked it. They were trying to capture a moment in time and its fleetingness. Emphasize speed and spontaneity. The artists wanted to give you the impression of the scene instead of the scene itself. uses broken color for the sun reflection. (when the paint is mixed on the canvas as opposed to before being applied)
(Degas) The Rehearsal (1874)
Period: 19th century, France Style: Impressionism •The Rehearsal is not a factual record, but a contrivance viewed from the angled perspective of an outside observer. •Dancers stretch, practice, look bored or exhausted, and are watched over by several "protectors." Degas drawn to dancers initially because of his fascination of inertia and speed and movement Almost like a blurry photo. Unposed. Lighting does not add to composition.
(Toulouse-Lautrec) At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance (1980)(Oil on canvas)
Period: 19th century, France Style: Post-Impressionism *Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec chronicled life in Montmartre, capturing café dancer Valentine the Boneless giving instruction to a new showgirl *Emphasis on outline, tipped-up ground, skewed composition, and awkward cropping reference impressionism in addition to expressionism. Interest in Degas. His parents were cousin so he was stunted in height. Eventually retreated into Parisian bohemia (dance halls, cathouses). His paintings and subjects were considered outcasts. Edgier look at modern life. Uses artificial light making some subjects look like they are wearing masks. Harsh, dark and artificial. Very similar to Degas the rehearsal but seedier. Emphasis on satire in Toulouse-Lautrec's.
(van Gogh) Starry Night (1889)(Oil on Canvas)
Period: 19th century, France Style: Post-Impressionism *One of the most famous Post-Impressionists, Van Gogh was a socialist who believed that modern life alienated people from both one another and themselves. *His contributions to art would lead to the later emergence of Expressionism, art that exaggerates aspects of form to evoke subjective emotion, and the self-expression of the artists' feelings. *The artist adapted Seurat's technique, painting in free, multidirectional impasto lines. *The Starry Night explores his contemplation of life and death with psychological, energetic intensity. Tries to start a school with Gauguin. Learns his own brushstroke (impasto) a characteristically thick line of paint in a certain direction. Used throughout this painting, surrounding the stars, on the wind. The artist linked the wildness of nature with the tranquil village scene. Cypress tree is a symbol of death. View from his asylum window. van Gogh was using his painting as a form of expressing his sadness. He is a precursor of expressionism.
(Edouard Manet) Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) (1863)(oil in canvas)
Period: 19th century, France Style: Realism •Manet offered flat, sharply outlined, and starkly lit figures who stand out against their setting. •In a nod to Titian's Pastoral Concert, a completely naked woman is seated next to two fully clothed bourgeois men. •This nudity was scandalous as it was not part of mythological or historical narrative, but within contemporary life. Quotation of a Rapheal painting and Titian painting. Rejecting the older ways of brushstrokes by leaving globs from the palette knife still on the canvas. He really challenged society but is only a realist with his subject matter. he is avante gard in his style with his use of nudity Rejected from salon
(Manet) Olympia (1865)
Period: 19th century, France Style: Realism •The title alludes to a socially ambitious prostitute of the same name in a novel and play by Alexandre Dumas fils. • It is based on Titian's "Venus" of Urbino, but instead of a curvaceous and round nude, Manet's subject is angular and flattened. •The tradition of the accommodating female nude is subverted by her gaze. -A play on the fact that Olympia was a name for prostitutes then but also the connection to mythology and gods. -Her hand is covering herself until we show her what we have to offer thus turning the viewer into someone hiring a prostitute. Pointing out the hypocracy of bourgeois men going to prostitutes while denying them status of art -No slavery in france so other woman is a worker not a slave -Evidence of smeared and unrefined painting techniques
(Courbet) The Stone Breaker (1849)(oil on canvas)
Period: 19th century, France Style: Realism •The Stone Breakers, destroyed in World War II, depicts a young boy and an old man crushing rocks. •The figures represent both an obsolete past and a grim future. •The work itself was the scale of a history painting. •Both the style and the subject matter is focused on realism. Showing the proletariat to the bourgeois through art. Courbet believed artists need to be on the front line of art and help promote intellectualism. Shows how modern society was built on the backs of the proletariat. Also how workers were born into their work and could not escape it.
(Moreau) Jupiter and Semele (1875)(oil on canvas)
Period: 19th century, France Style: Symbolism *Symbolists retreated from the physical, modernist world of the impressionists and the post impressionists. *Gustave Moreau's Jupiter and Semele explore the symbolists' interest in scenes from Greek and Roman mythology. However you also can see influence from, as well as biblical and far Eastern religion. *The theme of the painting is vision, powerful and overwhelming. *Gustave Moreau rendered The Apparition with the macabre head of John the Baptist dripping blood as it hovers in midair. *A seductive Salomé drips with decadence in the foreground, symbolizing her role as femme fatale who uses her sensuality to destroy a male victim. Tried to write down their dreams and express them. Greek myths although they are more hindu looking.
Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir focused his attention on depicting the middle class at leisure The artist sought to capture a carefree life, a paradise removed from the real world.
Urbanization
Process of rural dwellers moving into city centers. Leads to congestion and overcrowding
Historicism
Public works were decorated with motifs drawn from historic models
Realism
Realism is less of a style and more of a commitment to paint the brutalities of the modern world with honesty.
Realism in the United States: A Continuing Tradition
Realism was unbroken in American painting as far back as Colonial portrait painters.
Responses to Realism Beyond France
Social effects of urbanization and industrialization in other countries led to movements of art not labeled "Realism," but called the same manner of attention to the same bleak reality the working poor experienced.
Second Republic
The Revolution of 1848 saw the overthrow of the monarchy and establishment of the Second Republic. Conflicts among reformers led to the deaths of over 10,000 working poor.
Woman's suffrage
The right for women to vote
19th C.
The second half of the nineteenth century has been called the "positivist age" due to its faith in science. The development of the telephone, radio, electrical lighting, vaccines, and disinfectant occurred. Charles Darwin challenged Creation.
Pointillism
Type of divisionism that is composed of tiny focused dots of color next to one another. Scientific/mathematical calculations for how the eye observes color from color theory like simultaneous contrasts (a light grey next to a dark grey makes both look lighter/darker) , successive contrasts (looking at one color long enough "stains" the eye when it looks at another color),
Academie des Beaux-Arts
What became of the French Royal Academy after it was disbanded. Focused on Academic Art
Colonization
When countries expand their territories. Makes these countries alot of money through exploitation and import/export
Skyscraper
a building that is taller than it is wide
Slice of Life
an unstaged, typical look at a specific time and place
Charles Dickens
author who wrote about contemporary life
Modernism-Modernity
awareness of the modern time
Primitive
comes from the word primary. a term for when an artists leaves parts of the primary painting
Franco-Prussian War of 1870
over 20,000 people died and led to a diminishment of political commentary in french art
Marx- Communist Manifesto
politician who espoused a classless society and promoted a workers revolution
Haussmann
rebuilt wider streets, better sewage, and nicer parks
The Salon des Refuses
the exhibition of rejects. where artists who were rejected from the "salon" showed their paintings
Imperialism
the expansion of a nation's borders
Bourgeois vs. Proletariat
the higher class who had all the money vs the working everyday lower class. They unfortunately relied on each other
Arts and Crafts movement
the return to hand craftsmanship rather then industrialization
Social Darwinism
theory developed by the bourgeois supposedly explained the economic gap. They thought that they were naturally selected to be rich whereas the proletariat were not.
Palette Knife
tool used to smear paint on a canvas
Jean-Francois Millet
•Accusations of political radicalism were leveled against Courbet, and later against Jean-François Millet for his paintings' focus on rural life. •The Gleaners shows three women gathering left-over grain after harvest in a scene where warm colors contrast extreme poverty. •Millet would deny social criticism.
Rosa Bonheur
•Rosa Bonheur was a popular painter of French farm life. •She had to dress in men's clothing (with police permission) to make detailed studies in stockyards and slaughterhouses. •The Horse Fair was highly praised at the 1853 Salon, which was unusual for a painting of farm animals.
Early Photography in Europe and the United States
•The camera obscura was an early device for recording images from life. *Photography was developed as a way to make permanent visual impressions. *Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was the first to "fix" a photographic image. *A silver-coated metal plate treated with iodine fumes could make images visible when treated with mercury vapor. *Daguerrotypes include a still life of plaster casts and a framed drawing that stakes a claim for photography as art. *Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph, introduced the daguerrotype to America within weeks of Daguerre's announcement. *He reduced exposure times short enough to take portrait photographs.
Manet: "The Painter of Modern Life"
•Themes of the modern city and politics are key to understanding the trends that developed in Paris at this time. Modernism •Édouard Manet became the unofficial leader of a group of artists and writers who pushed the French Realist tradition into new territory.
